Grapefruit’s juicy, zesty, and tart effervescence instantly refreshes any fragrance. It’s lip-smacking energy is a staple of both men’s and women’s perfumes, and it pairs well with nearly any other note in a scent, but is best blended with cedar, lilies, roses, oranges, limes, black or pink pepper and lotus flower. Grapefruit is naturally exuberant and will always leap out at first spray, inviting the wearer to experience its enthusiastic and playful personality. It’s also one of the most versatile notes in perfumery, and appropriate to wear in any season as a standalone scent or blended into citrus or floral fragrances.

Lavender is one of the oldest, and most common perfume ingredients in the world. It’s gentlemanly, scrubbed, soapy/powdery feel is a staple of men’s colognes. Lavender has a slightly spicy edge as well, which makes it a universally blendable note in perfume. It can add a clean edge to aromatic or animalic scents, and deepen zesty citrus notes with its subtle, herbal facets. But most of all, lavender is associated with fresh, clean, pure, old-school elegance. It’s well-heeled sophistication is appropriate for any time of year, and it makes an excellent choice for either sex to wear casually or formally.

Bergamot’s sheer, dry, citrusy feel is one of the most popular perfume notes, especially in mens’ cologne. It’s a Mediterranean fruit grown mainly in Calabria, Italy, and its aroma and taste is slightly between grapefruit and orange. Bergamot is a year-round pleasure to wear, and will blend well with any other note, making bergamot fragrances versatile and a sophisticated option for citrus fragrance fans.

Alluring, sensual, enticing… Musk is well-known for its aphrodisiac powers. Perfumers play with a myriad of synthetic musks to fix, blend and mold ingredients in a number of intoxicating accords. These notes are clean and transparent—lending a velvety, skinny effect. Musk notes in perfume used to be processed from the actual musk glands of animals to impart a gamey, warm, and sensual texture. But this practice is illegal in modern times, and nowadays musk notes in fragrance are entirely synthetic. Musk’s tangy aroma can range from sheer, metallic and bright to very animalic and even as intimate as the scent of warm, damp, human skin. Musk adds a sultry, sensual feel to demure feminine scents, as well as making masculine notes like tobacco and leather vividly expressive in cologne. For perfume fans who enjoy the alluring scent of warm, clean, skin - musk is a must-have note in fragrance.